Susan Griepsma is our Marketing Communications Supervisor and has been with Gorbel® for 18 years! As Marketing Communications Supervisor, Susan gets to help tell the story of Gorbel® to our dealers and customers. Sometimes that means working with our design team to come up with new ads, sometimes that’s editing an announcement that’s going out to our dealers, sometimes it’s writing content for ads and brochures. She is also very involved with generating leads, so she tries to figure out how to get the most bang for her buck from the Marketing budget. Get to know a little about Susan from this Q&A!
What’s your life like outside of the office?
I have a VERY energetic daughter who isn’t old enough to be embarrassed by me yet, so my life is all about keeping up with her. Lots of road trips, Barbies, LEGO’s, finding tactful ways to answer her million questions every day, and helping out at her school when I can. When it’s just me, I love to swim and read anything I can get my hands on and post ridiculous things on Facebook.
Who is your role model and why?
Tom Carbott. He used to work for MHI and helped me out immensely at trade shows in my early years here. Tom is one of the warmest, friendliest, most gracious people you could ever want to meet. We’d be in this high stress environment at a convention center, setting up a show, everyone’s frazzled and freaking out, and he’d be this wonderful calming presence and just a really nice guy. Early in my career, I was told that I was “too nice” to get ahead and that I had to toughen up and change my style if I wanted to be successful. But I’d watch Tom in action, dealing with surly convention center employees and stressed out exhibitors, and even when he had to get tough, he always maintained his gentle, calm, respectful demeanor. He gets the job done using HIS style, and he’s really successful, and people respect the heck out of him. Watching Tom in action over the years reinforced for me that my style shouldn’t keep me from getting to where I want to be.
Any interesting jobs before you got to Gorbel®?
I worked in the Recreation Room at a nursing home when I was in college. I was the Bingo caller twice a week. It was the most stressful job I’ve ever had. They’d get so mad when I didn’t call their number. I still get hives anytime someone mentions Bingo to me.
What do you wish people knew about Gorbel®?
Just how seriously we take being “A Class Above” in everything we do. I love working for a company that holds itself to such high standards.
What is your favorite part of your job?
Absolutely the people. A non-Gorbel® person once pointed out to me that when I’m telling stories about work, I never call people my “co-workers”, I always call them my “work friends”. It was really odd to him that I enjoyed the people that I work with that much!
What is your favorite memory from your time here at Gorbel®?
Our very first Carnival of Caring back in what, 2006? Every department had been challenged to come up with a fun activity for the whole company, and Marketing came up with this idea for a week of goofy events where we could all compete and have fun together and maybe raise some money for charity. The first one was insane. We had no idea what to expect. We were prepared for it to be a total flop with zero participation. But…people came! And played! And paid! My favorite part was all the people who got voted into the dunk tank showing up in silly costumes and holding trash talking signs and then Bob Kramer dunking them one by one. By Friday, everyone on the planning committee was tired and hot and needed a shower and a mental break, and then someone came down and told us how much money we had raised in that one week for Golisano Children’s Hospital. It was so much more than we had ever anticipated when we were planning the event. I remember we all seemed a little shell shocked, like, “Wow. We just pulled that off.” And then from there to watch it grow and evolve into an annual thing, with other departments joining the planning committee and coming up with cool new ideas… lots of memories tied in with the Carnivals over the years.
What motivates you to do what you do here? What are you most excited about?
I love to write. So to be able to do something I love every day, for a company I really believe in, is very fulfilling. The thing I’m most excited about right now is the Human Centered Design tools that we’ve been using. It’s all about getting people to think differently. I don’t believe that creativity and innovation just happen. The kind of thinking that sparks creativity and innovation is like a muscle that you have to keep exercising for it to get stronger. Human Centered Design is the perfect set of tools to get us to keep working that creativity muscle.